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In Accounting Today’s article “Properly Classifying Workers Remains a Major Problem“, employment attorney Scott Connolly comments on how worker misclassification is a prevalent issues for both the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing officials. Companies that misclassify employees as independent contractors avoid paying minimum wage, payroll taxes, overtime, worker’s compensation, and other payments under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act. However, this mislabeling can lead to trouble with the IRS, including the company owing taxes it failed to withhold by classifying a worker as an independent contractor instead of as an employee.

Additionally, as Scott notes:

The employer should be concerned about misclassification claims from the workers themselves… Many service providers want to be classified as independent contractors, but companies run the risk because later there might be disharmony in the relationship.”

Read the full article for more information on the potential consequences of misclassifying workers, or contact Scott Connolly for more information.

On November 22, a federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary order that temporarily blocks the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) from implementing changes to the salary basis for white collar overtime exemptions. The new salary rule, which was to become effective on December 1, 2016 would have required employers to increase exempt employees’ minimum salary from $23,660 to $47,476. The preliminary court order blocking the rule appears to apply to all public and private employers nationwide.

Find out how the judge’s order will affect the new salary rule, which was to become effective on December 1. Read this month’s Employment Law Alert.

On December 1, 2016, any employees who earn less than $47,476 annually will be entitled to overtime and must be treated as non-exempt, as per the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule (“Final Rule”).
Don’t wait any longer to address this critical change in the law.
Find out how the Final Rule will affect your current employee classifications and pay practices, and the consequences of not complying with the law.

On August 1, 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed “An Act to Establish Pay Equity (the Act)” into law. The Act, which does not become effective until July 1, 2018, will require Massachusetts employers to pay men and women equally for comparable work. It also forbids employers from asking prospective employees about salary history or restricting employee discussion of pay. The Act imposes significant consequences for
violations of the law.

The Act will make it unlawful for employers to pay unequal wages to employees of different genders who perform comparable work. The Act broadly defines wages to include “all forms of remuneration for employment.”

For the past eight years, legislative efforts to reform post-employment noncompetion agreements in Massachusetts have failed. But this year, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has signaled his support for H. 4323 and there is buzz that a non-compete bill mayland on Gov. Baker’s desk before the legislative session ends in July.

This bill entitled, “Massachusetts Noncompetition Act” has eight key components in order for a noncompetition agreement to be valid and enforceable. If H. 4323 is enacted, employers will have to quickly and carefully revise their employee restrictive agreements to comply with the new law.

By: Sandra E. Kahn
There is an ever-increasing array of regulation on employment practices at the state and federal level. But when do growing businesses become covered under the employment laws of these jurisdictions?

It’s all in the employee numbers: Six, Fifteen, Twenty, Fifty, One Hundred. For example, when a business has six employees, the company becomes covered by the MA Fair Employment Practices Act but then at fifteen, it also comes under the federal laws of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As the company grows, different regulations come and go and it is critical to be aware of it in order to maintain legal compliance.

On May 18, 2016, President Obama announced the publication of the U.S. Department of
Labor’s final rule (“Final Rule”) updating the overtime regulations, and providing that employees who earn less than $47,476 annually will be entitled to overtime.

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) “white collar” exemptions are familiar to most employers. Under the FLSA, employees must be paid the minimum amount required by the statute on a salary basis, and the employee’s job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties. The Final Rule changes only the salary basis test, leaving in place the existing duties test.

For more details, read our full alert and visit our Employment Law Group page.